Xamarin Profile Service offering evaluation and user rating October 2013
About research2guidance research2guidance is a strategy advisor and market research company. We concentrate on the mobile app eco-system. Our service offerings include: App Strategy: We help our clients in and outside of the mobile industry to develop their app market strategy. Our consulting advisory projects are based on a set of predefined project approaches including: App strategy development, App Evaluation, App Market Segment Sizing, App Governance and App Marketing Spend Effectiveness. App Market Reports: Our app market reports explore the major trends and developments affecting the app markets. Separate research papers provide both general and specific coverage of the market. The reports contain key insights for companies looking to enter or deepen their engagement with the mobile applications market, providing data and analysis on all relevant aspects of the market to ease investment decision-making. App Market Surveys: We leverage our 70.000 app eco-system database to conduct surveys and reports for our clients. research2guidance UG Berlin, Germany +49 (0)30 609 89 33 60 www.research2guidance.com 2
Related products and services: CP-Tool Profile: Xamarin (by Xamarin) Cross-Platform Tool Benchmarking 2013: The hidden champions of the app economy Detailed Cross- Platform Tool Benchmarking 2013: A comparison of 10 leading tools for multiplatform app development Marmalade Profile: Service offering and user rating Corona SDK Profile: Service offering and user rating Unity 3D Profile: Service offering and user rating Click on the covers to get more information? Need help with finding the right Cross-Platform Tool? Use our standardized CP Tool selection process to find the right tool for your app projects. Contact the analyst Joachim Thiele-Schlesier: +49 (0) 30 609 89 33 60, js@research2guidance.com 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Xamarin in a nutshell... 5 2. About this profile... 6 3. Scope of Xamarin s service offering... 7 3.1. Device class and platform support and feature availability... 7 3.2. Target user groups and industries... 10 3.3. Estimated familiarization and development time... 12 3.4. Xamarin offered support services... 13 4. User rating of Xamarin service offering... 14 4.1. User profiles and usage frequency... 14 4.2. Targeted industries and preferred app categories by Xamarin users... 15 4.3. Xamarin complexity evaluation... 17 4.4. Achieved time savings... 18 4.5. User satisfaction with platform, API and HW support... 19 4.6. User satisfaction with Xamarin s support service... 23 4.7. User satisfaction with app quality... 24 4.8. Cost-performance rating of Xamarin... 25 5. Strengths and challenges... 27 6. Appendix... 28 6.1. Benchmarking methodology... 28 6.2. About the authors... 31 6.3. List of figures and tables... 32 4
1. XAMARIN IN A NUTSHELL Xamarin, of the same name as its vendor, is a suite for cross-platform development and deployment. It consists of Xamarin Studio, Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS (formerly Mono Touch), Xamarin.Mac including test cloud services, libraries and documentation. Xamarin is built for professional mobile apps developers. Xamarin will be able to help developers publish mobile apps as well as newer types of target devices like smart TVs or incar devices. Xamarin is not suited for developers who want to build apps for feature phones or game consoles. With a wealth of APIs Xamarin gives professional developers a lot of options for their smartphone, TV or in-car apps. In addition to the many APIs Xamarin offers a lot of hardware feature access. Claim: We have one of the highest customer satisfaction rates among all of the crossplatform tools. USP: Access to 100% of the native ios and Android APIs - anything that can be done on Objective-C and Java can be done in Xamarin in C#. Developers building apps with Xamarin get fully native user experiences and performance with no compromises, and also get all of the advantages of sharing code across device platforms (on average 75%). Reported number of developers: 375.000+ Reported number of apps: Not disclosed Reference apps: LabView TouchDraw Infinite Flight Pricing: License per seat using the solution Starter: Free Indie: US$ 300 / year Business: US$ 1.000 / year Enterprise: US$ 1.900 / year Address: 430 Pacific Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 (USA) 5
2. ABOUT THIS PROFILE This benchmarking report provides a 360-degree view on Xamarin. It matches the perspective of the vendor with the experience of Xamarin s users. The benchmarking results are based on two research projects conducted between May and August 2013. The first project examined the features of the tools and the additional service offerings of the vendors. Research2guidance invited 90 cross-platform tool vendors, including Xamarin, to provide company and tool information with the help of an online survey. At the same time, users have been invited to share their experience with these tools. The analysis asked for feedback on 16 dimensions including tool awareness, quality and performance. The global online survey received over 1,000 responses from app developers and publishers. Xamarin has been one of the most rated tools. This report aggregates all information about Xamarin into a comprehensive profile. To allow the comparison of the Xamarin with similar CP Tools, the report also contrasts the user ratings for Xamarin with the industry benchmark. The report aims at giving a comprehensive decision support for the selection process of a CP Tool that includes Xamarin. 6
ABOUT THE AUTHORS The authors of this report have been following the app market and CP Tools for many years. The first report on multi-platform app publishing tools was published in 2010. Since then, two other reports which cover the market for CP Tools have been published. OUR ANALYST TEAM Ralf-Gordon Jahns Ralf is the research director of research2guidance. He has worked for more than 19 years in the telecom and media industry. Prior to research2guidance he worked as a partner for Capgemini Telecom Media & Networks. Ralf is a frequent keynote speaker on mobile industry events, publisher of a multitude of mobile market reports and executive consultant of more than 30 clients in the telecom and media industry. Joachim Thiele-Schlesier Joachim is a research analyst at research2guidance. He is monitoring the CP Tool market since 2011 and has been responsible for publishing 3 reports on this topic. Joachim also engaged with projects on converging telecommunication networks and regulatory issues. He holds a degree in economics and specializes on infrastructure and network economics. Prior to research2guidance he worked for Markedskraft ASA as analyst and for the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems and Center for Network Industries. 7
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1: Device class optimization of Xamarin...8 Table 2: Xamarin - platform support...8 Table 3: Accessible device hardware features and pre-installed applications...9 Table 4: Integration of APIs...10 Table 5: Target industries by Xamarin...11 Table 6: Xamarin targeted company sizes and user types...12 Table 7: Complexity of Xamarin in terms of time-to-learn and average app development time (vendor s view)...12 Table 8: Xamarin - available support channels...13 Figure 1: Xamarin users by company size and position...14 Figure 2: Xamarin users - total number of published apps and share of Xamarin apps...15 Figure 3: Xamarin users - industry focus when using Xamarin...16 Figure 4: Xamarin users app category focus when using Xamarin...17 Figure 5: Complexity of Xamarin in terms of time-to-learn and average app development time (users view); Complexity rating...18 Figure 6: Realized time-savings in app development with Xamarin...19 Figure 7: Targeted platforms by Xamarin users; satisfaction with platform support...20 Figure 8: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Xamarin cloud API services...21 Figure 9: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Xamarin accessible device hardware features...22 Figure 10: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Xamarin accessible pre-installed applications...23 Figure 11: Usage of Xamarin support channels and support service satisfaction...24 Figure 12: Xamarin app quality rating...25 Figure 13: Xamarin - cost-performance ratio (user rating)...26 Figure 14: Benchmarking methodology...28 Figure 15: Geographical overview of cross-platform tool users...29 Figure 16: Background of cross-platform tool users...30 8
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